Mount McKinley Height Was Incorrect Until Now

Mount McKinley, North America’s tallest mountain peak, has now been proven to be several feet shorter than was originally estimated.

In 1952, an advanced form of calculating measurements known as “photogrammetry” calculated the Alaskan peak as having a high point of 20,320 feet; a 2010 calculation by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Statewide Digital Mapping Initiative in Alaska determined that number to actually be 20,237. The study results were complete in 2011, but the news was never released until Alaska Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell decided to do so.

Treadwell released a statement at a map collectors’ symposium in Fair Banks last week. “That’s 83 feet shorter than we thought…The good news is: Denali is still the tallest peak in North America.”

If the 20,237 feet calculation is correct, that makes Mount McKinley the tallest peak, still, by more than 680 feet; the second-highest peak on the continent is Mount Logan in Canada, which stands at 19,551 feet.

Kari Craun, of the U.S. Geological Survey, says that while the technology used to calculate the peak two years ago is advanced, its main purpose is to calculate areas rather than a specific point, meaning the new measurement isn’t 100% accurate.

There are no plans at this time to recalculate the mountain peak or change the official measurement.

Mount McKinley climber Nick Parker told the Anchorage Daily News, “It’s still high, it’s still hard, it’s still cold. As long as it’s higher than Texas, I don’t care.”

Lots of people have lots of time on their hands. Really? We wonder why our taxes are so high … it is because of nonsense like this. Did we really need to commission a study for this? Just to know we are off by 82 feet … and then the results are still not accurate.

It reminds me of the time the government commissioned a study to research the gastric pattern of cows. Yes, America. We studied cows farting. It cost us several hundred thousand dollars by the way.

Your tax dollars at work. Then again, they could be bogus projects and just a way to payoff people. You never know nowadays.